Jiang Jingyu keenly sensed the change in her emotions.
Thinking she was feeling unwell again, he quickly asked, "What's wrong? Are you feeling sick?"
Tong An'an was so tired, so utterly drained that she couldn't even speak.
Closing her eyes, she said weakly, "No, I just don't want to talk. You can stay if you want, but please, could you be quiet? Okay?"
Given her condition, Jiang Jingyu naturally didn't dare to leave. He carried her to the bed and held her. Both of them had a multitude of unspoken words weighing on their hearts, but neither spoke.
Thus, they spent a night of very poor rest.
Recently, due to her health issues, although there was no pain or itching and it didn't affect her daily activities, Jiang Jingyu had grown accustomed to taking care of her.
This morning was no exception.
While she was asleep, he got up early and prepared breakfast.
Seeing him like this, Tong An'an felt even more unsettled.
Jiang Jingyu was too good. It was precisely because he was so good to her that she hesitated to voice her concerns, to break this peace, and to break up with him.
She found herself in a dilemma.
On one hand, she didn't want to be a substitute for someone else. To live her entire life carrying this secret, deceiving herself.
On the other hand, if she left him, she might truly never meet anyone better. This was her first love. She couldn't bear to let go, couldn't bear to let go.
She couldn't bear it so much that the mere thought of breaking up caused her heart to ache as if it were being torn apart.
Seeing her distracted even while eating breakfast, Jiang Jingyu asked cautiously.
"Are you still upset about that? Don't think too much about it."
"I never really liked children much anyway. There were always many kids at home when I was growing up, always noisy and chirping, and I got tired of it. Besides, my family doesn't need me to continue the lineage. As long as the two of us are happy together, that's all that matters. You don't need to feel any burden."
He was truly kind. Tong An'an didn't want to keep a long face and make herself unhappy, or affect him. She could only pretend to be a bit happier and smiled at him.
"I understand. I'll come around."
After breakfast, they headed to work. Jiang Jingyu drove with one hand and held hers with the other.
Usually, she would be chattering and laughing, but today she just looked out the window, lost in thought. He felt so heartbroken.
When they arrived at the company, he personally witnessed her entering the sales department floor. He watched her sit at her desk through the glass door of the sales department before leaving.
However, upon returning to his office, he still felt a lingering worry, unsure how to completely assuage her guilt about not being able to have children.
From eight to nine o'clock, Jiang Jingyu checked his phone frequently.
Naturally, Tong An'an was not in the mood to proactively send messages to tease him or share her thoughts. Her phone remained silent.
He could endure it, but she couldn't.
He sent her a message asking if she had drunk water today. Tong An'an replied a few minutes later: "Preparing for a meeting."
She was very serious when she worked, so Jiang Jingyu didn't reply to disturb her further.
He asked Zhang Yang to find out what time their meeting was and what it was about.
He soon found out: at 9:30, a department meeting regarding the progress of a certain project.
Jiang Jingyu knew about this project because Tong An'an sometimes brought work home, and he would help her with it.
He missed her dearly, even just being able to watch her quietly, without saying or doing anything.
Jiang Jingyu instructed Zhang Yang, "Give them a heads-up. I'll be attending the meeting later."
The CEO occasionally toured departments and attended their meetings, treating it as a surprise inspection.
This wasn't the first time, so the supervisor could understand.
After Zhang Yang delivered the notification, he hurried out to tell everyone.
"President Jiang will be attending our meeting later, so everyone be alert. Present yourselves well during the reports, don't embarrass our department."
Finally, the meeting began.
Jiang Jingyu sat at the head of the table, with the supervisor beside him.
He remained silent, only glancing at Tong An'an now and then.
But Tong An'an just stared at the document in front of her, not returning his gaze even once.
As the reports progressed, Jiang Jingyu's ears picked up a set of numbers.
He looked up at the screen. The figures seemed incorrect. He raised his hand, interrupting the reporter.
"Who investigated this data? Why is it written like this?"
This project was being advanced by Tong An'an and another senior employee.
These two had looked down on Tong An'an since her first day in the department.
Then, she became the CEO's girlfriend, and they were secretly jealous and hated her.
Unfortunately, Tong An'an was usually quite low-key and didn't interact much with others, so they couldn't find any fault with her.
Today, they had intended to alter a piece of data to make her lose face in front of the supervisor, but they hadn't expected the CEO to show up.
The two were excited and, after some discussion, decided to put on a show together.
If no one noticed the data error, they would expose it themselves and then shift the blame to Tong An'an, causing her to lose face in front of her boyfriend.
It would be even better if it were discovered directly.
Committing such a basic mistake, they wanted to see how President Jiang would cover for her.
The CEO was indeed the CEO, and quite professional. The supervisor hadn't even noticed yet, but he had spotted such a small detail.
The female colleague pretended to stare at the screen in surprise for two to three seconds. After confirming there was an issue, she looked at Tong An'an.
"An'an, you were responsible for this section. You know better than I do how these figures were derived, so perhaps you can explain it."
Tong An'an saw the document she was pointing to on the screen. It was the original version, not the one that had been changed later.
She was about to stand up and say, "Perhaps you made a mistake and brought the wrong version? The final version I gave you wasn't like this."
But Jiang Jingyu preempted her, taking over the conversation.
"Could it be your issue? This is the initial version. Did you bring the wrong document yourself?"
The female colleague immediately denied it, "No, President Jiang. Tong An'an just sent it to me before the meeting."
"Then that's strange. I saw Tong An'an working on this project, and the figures were calculated by me and her together. The correct figures should be xxxx, and it's impossible for it to be Tong An'an's mistake."
"Sit down, find the correct version quickly, and report again. Don't make such a basic mistake again in the future."
"Speaking on a smaller scale, this is just a department meeting, and you made a mistake due to carelessness with the version. Speaking on a larger scale, if you were to send the wrong version directly to a client, with such a significant discrepancy, would the company have to pay, or would you personally have to pay?"
After his words, the female colleague's face turned red. She was so ashamed that she wished she could disappear into the ground right there.
She had never expected Jiang Jingyu to have calculated such a trivial thing with Tong An'an.
The supervisor quickly took over, talking about his poor leadership, spouting a lot of perfunctory remarks.
Then, he praised Tong An'an for her diligent work, telling Jiang Jingyu that everyone should learn from her.
Jiang Jingyu looked at Tong An'an for a while, feeling somewhat satisfied.
Not wanting to cause any further pressure on everyone, he waved his hand and left the office.